Breakfast at Tiffany's: Character Profiles | Novelguide Breakfast at Tiffany's: Character Profiles Total Votes: 111 Sid Arbuck Sid Arbuck is one of Holly’s admirers. He is short and overweight, with a fake tan, carefully coiffed hair, and a carnation in his lapel. He escorts Holly home one night but she disappoints him by refusing to let him into her apartment. Joe Bell Joe Bell owns a bar on Lexington Avenue, New York, just around the corner from where Holly and the narrator live. He still operates the bar in1956, thirteen years after Holly lived in the area. The narrator thinks Joe is a difficult person to talk to; that is, unless a person happens to share Joe’s interests in ice hockey, a certain soap serial on the radio, a certain breed of dog, Gilbert and Sullivan operetta—and Holly Golightly. Joe was in love with Holly in the 1940s and retains fond memories of her still. O. J. Berman O. J. Berman is a Hollywood actor’s agent who attends a party at Holly’s apartment. According to the narrator, he smells of cigars and cologne. O. J.

has known Holly for several years, since she was fifteen, and once almost got her launched on a movie career. He refers to her as “the kid.” O. J. is somewhat self-regarding; he expects others to know who he is, and he is very talkative and opinionated. Doc Golightly Doc Golightly is Holly’s husband. In his early fifties, Doc is a horse doctor from Tulip, Texas. His wife died in 1936, leaving him to care for their four children. After Holly shows up at his house two years later as a runaway child, Doc soon marries her. This is in 1938, when she is not yet fourteen. Doc treats her well but she runs away within a year or so. Doc searches for her and finally finds her in New York, where he surprises the narrator with his story. Doc wants Holly to return to Tulip with him, but she explains with as much kindness as she can that that will not be possible. Doc accepts her decision and returns home. Fred Golightly Fred Golightly is Holly’s brother. He appears in the novel only in Holly’s words about him.

He and Holly ran away from their foster home together and both lived with Doc Golightly. Holly is deeply fond of Fred, who showed her affection when they were children. Fred joins the army and fights in World War II. He writes to Holly, and it is also Fred who gives Doc Golightly Holly’s address. When Holly receives a telegram informing her that Fred has been killed in combat, she is grief-stricken. Holly Golightly Holly Golightly is the heroine of the novel. When the narrator first meets her she is just under nineteen years old. Holly, who is slim, well-dressed and fun-loving, is a paradox: she is at once innocent and worldly-wise. She does not work for a living but lives off the money given to her by men. She has many male admirers, including the narrator and Joe Bell, who are drawn to her innocence and her charming irresponsibility as well as to her good looks.

Despite the fact that she lives off the generosity of men, she does not believe herself to be a prostitute and claims that she has not had sex with all that many men, and she always feels some emotions for them: she tries to love them rather than just cashing their checks and not thinking any more about them. It transpires during the course of the novel that Holly is an orphan from the South who ran away from her foster family because they mistreated her. She married Doc Golightly, a man about thirty-five years older than she, when she was thirteen, but soon grew tired of the domesticated life and ran away. She lived for a while in California and then moved to New York. Holly is an independent but restless woman who longs to find love and a place she can call home. Until then she intends to keep on traveling. The Narrator The unnamed narrator is a young as yet unpublished writer who in 1943 lives in the same building as Holly Golightly. He is modeled on the author, Truman Capote. The narrator becomes friends with Holly and for a while they spent quite a lot of time together.

He even falls in love with her in a quiet sort of way, but she never regards him as more than a friend. During the time when he is friends with Holly he is excited to have one story accepted for publication by a university review. To support himself he has to take a nine to five job, from which he is soon fired. He finds it difficult to find another job and is worried that he might be drafted into the armed forces. Some months after Holly flies to Brazil, the narrator sells two more stories, so he appears to be on the road to success. Much later, he is inspired to write about Holly. He also reveals during his narrative of the war years that he later traveled extensively, including to Europe, Morocco and the West Indies (just like the well-traveled Capote). Oliver O’Shaughnessy Oliver O’Shaughnessy is an associate of Sally Tomato who pretends to be a lawyer. He is the one who invites Holly to visit Sally in prison, offering her a hundred dollars per visit. He then receives from Holly the “weather report,” which Sally gives her, which is in fact a coded message connected to a drug syndicate run by Sally.

O’Shaughnessy is arrested at the same time as Holly, and it transpires that he is not a lawyer but a defrocked priest with a criminal record. Madame Sapphia Spanella Madame Sapphia Spanella is one of the tenants in Holly’s apartment. She takes a dislike to Holly and at one point circulates a petition among the other tenants calling for Holly to be evicted because of her poor morals and her habit of throwing noisy, late-night parties. Sally Tomato Sally Tomato is a mafia boss who is serving five years in Sing Sing prison for political bribery. He pays Holly to visit him and uses her to pass on messages that enable him to retain control of an international narcotics syndicate. Holly thinks he is a delightful old man, very religious. Some months after Holly’s flight to Rio, Sally Tomato dies in prison of a heart attack. Rusty Trawler Rusty Trawler is a rich playboy with a colorful background. He was orphaned at the age of five and inherited his parents’ wealth. As an adult, he has always been the talk of the gossip columnists. He has been married and divorced four times, and has a reputation as a Nazi sympathizer.

The narrator describes him as “a middle-aged child that had never shed its baby fat.” Rusty is very attached to Holly, who treats him like a big baby, but he ends up marrying Mag Wildwood. The marriage ends in divorce. José Ybarra-Jaegar José Ybarra-Jaegar is a Brazilian diplomat who takes up first with Mag Wildwood and later with Holly. José is good-looking and well groomed—a refined and seemingly quite cultured man. The narrator thinks José looks rather out of place, like “a violin in a jazz band,” when the Brazilian goes out for the evening with Mag, Rusty, and Holly. Holly manages to steal him away from Mag, and José invites her to go back with him to Rio. Holly has every expectation of marrying him, but after the scandal breaks and Holly is arrested, José leaves her, writing her a letter in which he says he cannot afford to have his name linked to scandal. Mag Wildwood Mag Wildwood is a glamorous young woman originally from rural Arkansas. She has come to New York and made a career for herself as a model. Her physical appearance is striking, since she is over six feet tall.

She is confident with men, who seem to fall over themselves to get to know her, although Mag thinks of herself as a very conventional person. She seems to spend much of her spare time knitting sweaters. Mag becomes Holly’s roommate and starts dating José Ybarra-Jaegar but after she loses him to Holly she marries Rusty Trawler. personality-fall2011 - Holly Golightly personality-fall2011 By: Janessa Rodriguez Biography Holly Golightly is the main character of the 1961 classic romantic comedy titled Breakfast at Tiffany’s played by actress Audrey Hepburn. The film tells the story of a young country girl turned Manhattan socialite as she plots to find a wealthy suitor for marriage in order to secure a comfortable future for herself and her younger brother Fred. Holly is vibrant and charming, yet very naïve and vulnerable. Although she lives in a small studio apartment and survives day-to-day by working as a call girl for $50 here and there, Holly upkeeps a very classy and demure appearance; never being caught outside without her satin black dress, heels, and strings of pearls or diamonds.

She is very stubborn and free-spirited and firmly believes that she could never belong to anyone not even to her own cat named “cat.” Holly’s plans for finding a rich husband become redirected when a young, handsome author named Paul Varjak moves into her apartment building. The two find themselves falling in love despite the obstacles they face with Holly’s tumultuous past and her present antics with mob bosses and millionaires. Paul helps Holly learn to accept herself for who she is rather than what she can become which ultimately ends Holly’s chase for wealth and loveless marriages. Psychoanalytic Perspective The Psychoanalytic perspective was based on the theories of Sigmund Freud. Freud believed that the mind was split into three parts: conscious awareness, unconscious or repressed material, and the preconscious which contains material that is not in our current awareness but still accessible. Essentially, Freud theorized that all behavior was caused by inner desires and conflicts which could be tapped into using psychotherapy techniques such as free association and dream analysis. Freud also believed that deep inner conflicts occurring in childhood had substantial effects on later development.

He proposed the “Structural Model of Personality” which states that an individual’s personality has 3 parts: the Id, the Ego, and the Super Ego. The Id operates through pleasure; meaning it serves to satisfy our most primitive needs and drives such as hunger, thirst, and sex. The Super Ego functions through our morals, both internalized from our parents and society. The Ego balances both the Id and Superego by solving problems in the most realistic way according to the individual. After analyzing Holly’s character from a psychoanalytic perspective, it is clear that her tough childhood was a direct force in the way she approached life as an adult. Before Holly became “Holly,” she was born Lula Mae Barnes on a farm in Tulip,Texas. She and her younger brother Fred were orphaned at a very young age and were left to fend for themselves in order to survive. Holly was caught stealing eggs one day from a man named Doc Golightly. She ends up marrying the much older Doctor in order for her and her brother to have a safe and comfortable place to live.

When her brother Fred goes off to the military, Holly leaves for a new life in New York City where she reinvents herself on her quest to find a rich husband. Freudian psychologists would say that Holly’s Id is the most pronounced structure of her mind. She actively endeavors to solve her issues of security and comfort through whatever means necessary; be it as a call girl or marrying a man for his money. Her desire to have a comfortable life overrides her moral conscious. As Holly says in a drunken stupor to Paul who expresses his disapproval of her endeavors to marry a rich man, “I need money. And I will do anything I can to get it.” Holly mentions to Paul when meeting him that whenever she gets the “mean reds, not blues” she jumps into a cab and goes to Tiffany’s which always makes her feel better. Tiffany’s is a symbol of wealth, fortune, and power. Holly finds comfort and a sense of belonging being there. Until she finds a “real-life place” like Tiffany’s, she doesn’t belong to anything or anyone anywhere. Further psychoanalytic analysis of Holly Golightly would reveal the Ego’s use of multiple defense mechanisms.

Defense mechanisms are processes used by the Ego to alter one’s reality so that it protects the individual from threatening material entering their consciousness. In the film, Holly evokes the use of sublimation which is when one attempts to disguise an unacceptable/dangerous action as a positive or meaningful one. This is seen in Holly’s interactions with a mob boss named Sally Tomato. Holly is paid $100 to go every Thursday to Sing Sing prison to visit Sally who gives her coded mob messages in the form of a bizarre weather report. Holly relays the message to one of Sally’s assistants outside of the prison who compensates her in return. Although Holly is aware that what she is doing might be illegal, she has convinced herself that she is merely being charitable by keeping a lonely, old man company. When Paul expresses his concern for Holly, she replies “It’s okay, I’ve been taking care of myself for a long time.” This once again alludes to her early childhood and how she learned to fend for herself no matter the means. The mechanism of repression also manifests itself in Holly’s behavior. Repression is when a person reverts back to an earlier, safer period of their life in order to protect themselves from anxiety and other harmful stimuli.

This is seen when Holly falls asleep in Paul’s arms one night. She begins to talk in her sleep to Paul as if he was her younger brother Fred back on their Texas farm, “Where are you Fred? I’m cold. It’s snowing.” She suddenly begins to cry and Paul wakes her up with which she became agitated with him and called him a ‘snoop’ for asking what was wrong. Holly is very frightened and defensive over her past. She’s unable to allow herself to open up to anyone, not even a friend, for fear of losing them eventually or having them judge her and her less than glamorous roots. Holly also displays the defense mechanism of displacement. Displacement is when the target of one’s fears or desires is placed on a safer or more vulnerable target. The target in this case is Holly’s cat named “cat.” At the end of the movie Holly packs up and tries to leave to Brazil in attempts to gain back her marriage proposal from Jose, the Brazilian millionaire. Paul fights desperately with her to get her to stay with him based on the honest, true love that they have for one another rather than just an ‘investment’ marriage.

Holly, fighting the vulnerability that comes with her love for Paul, takes cat in a frightened fury and releases him into a raining alley so that he could be free from everything, including her, and not have to feel dependent on anything. Holly expresses to Paul, “I'm not Holly. I'm not Lula Mae, either. I don't know who I am! I'm like cat here, a couple of no-name slobs. We belong to nobody and nobody belongs to us. We don't even belong to each other.” Trait and Skill Approach According to Gordon Allport, each individual has a unique set of qualities that work to predict one’s life outcomes. He developed a scale called “The Big Five” which contains the main categories of extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness. Holly scores very high on the extraversion scale. Qualities such as outgoingness, assertiveness and dominance fall under this category. Holly is very talkative and can easily strike up a conversation with anyone she’s just met. She likes to be surrounded by people, and frequently throws parties in her crowded New York apartment which are often shut down by the police because of their rowdiness.

Her wardrobe, composed of black satin gowns and elaborate jewelry worn without occasion, further adds to Holly’s desire to stand out and be noticed. She also wishes to pursue a career in show business after finding a manager and reinventing a new version of herself that would be far from the one she had back in Tulip, Texas. Holly wants to be seen and heard by New York’s elite and anyone else who is willing to notice her. Holly also displays a high degree of neuroticism. Neuroticism describes the emotional instability of a person. Neurotic traits can be anxiety, impulsiveness, depression, and hostility. Holly is very unsure of herself and often times ‘flighty.’ It’s difficult for her to become accustomed to one place at a time, so she tends to travel a lot and move. She cannot commit to anything for fear of being ‘caged’ or restricted. She runs away from any true feelings she has for anyone because it means that she is completely vulnerable to someone else who will be able to look past her tough façade and see the frightened little girl inside.

As Holly tells Doc Golightly when he comes to NYC in attempt to win her back, “You can’t love a wild thing.” Because of all this, Holly scores low on conscientiousness which is a measure of how competent, persistent, and organized a person is. Holly is unable to stick to a task for a long period of time. The night before a screen test that her agent O.J. Berman had set up, Holly bails on her agent and takes a flight to New York after telling him that she ‘just doesn’t want to do it.’ She is very laid back, or what you would call a ‘free spirit’ rather than painstakingly thorough and organized. This is demonstrated in how Holy keeps her apartment. Although she’s been living there for almost a year, she still hasn’t unpacked and has some of her belongings are scattered in the oddest places (like the ringing telephone in a suitcase). Holly also displays a fair amount of openness. Openness describes a person with a vivid imagination, curiosity, and appreciation of beauty. Holly took French lessons for over a year when arriving in New York and actively uses phrases here and there since she is very fond of French culture.

She is imaginative in the sense that she has invented this completely different identity of a Manhattan socialite when all she’s ever known is being a poor, country girl. As her agent Berman says to Jack at Holly’s party, “Is she or isn’t she? A phony. A real phony.” Being that Holly doesn’t have the budget of a rich girl, she maintains her appearance by reusing the same black dresses, only adding creative touches like a brooch or a fancy hat to make them distinct. She is very resourceful and intuitive in all that she does in order to keep up this elaborate showcase. Another way that Holly demonstrates openness is when she brainstorms a day of fun for her and Paul. She suggests they spend the entire day venturing throughout New York City doing things they’ve never done before such as going to the public library, engraving a Cracker Jack prize ring at Tiffany’s, and stealing from a 5-10 cent store. All of which cost the pair nothing which suited them perfectly. Discussion After analyzing Holly Golighty’s personality using both the Psychoanalytic approach as well as the Trait-Skill perspective, one could see in depth the various facets of her personality.

Holly’s overactive Id causes her to be impulsive at times and place her own needs such as money and recognition on a high pedestal. But due to the inner struggle between the opposing forces of the Id and Superego, Holly employed the use of defense mechanisms such as sublimation, repression, and displacement. The psychoanalytic theory predicts that Holly’s current behavior and anxieties all stem from the obstacles she faced during her childhood being orphaned and caring for her younger brother. The determination to survive and find a place of true comfort is her most motivating drive. These unresolved conflicts are also manifested in the level of neuroticism in Holly’s personality. Her vulnerability and defensiveness prevent her from maintaining close friendships or relationships. Holly lacks structure therefore she is low on conscientiousness, but her bubbly and agreeable extroverted personality makes it easy for people to be drawn to her. The ultimate quest to finding true love and her own identity is aided by her open personality and curiosity of the world which leads her in the end to her very own ‘Tiffany’s.’ References Friedman, Howard S, and Miriam W Schustack. Personality: Classic Theories and Modern Research. New York: Pearson, 1999.

Jurow, M. & Shepherd, R. (Producers), and Edwards, B. (Director). (1961). Breakfast at Tiffany’s [Motion Picture]. United States: Paramount Pictures. The Film Sufi: “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” - Blake Edwards (1961) “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” - Blake Edwards (1961) Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961), directed by Blake Edwards, has always been immensely popular with audiences, though critics have tended to dismiss it as a lightweight romance. To be sure, the film has all the commercialized luster and trappings of Hollywood, including some almost burlesque comedy scenes, but I think it still holds up as one of the great movies. Although the film is based on Truman Capote’s 1958 novella of the same name, it departs significantly from the original story so that the two works have rather different feelings to them. Capote was unhappy about some of the changes made, but the screenplay, by the gifted writer and director George Axelrod, has its own virtues apart from the novella.

Capote’s story is more bittersweet, more bleak, while the film holds more promise about life. From my perspective, both works are outstanding in slightly different ways, and I recommend you both see the film and read the book. Here, though, I will just concentrate on the film. Actually, critics who do like the film sometimes have a hard time articulating why. After all, the story about a frivolous, selfish girl hardly seems to have much of a plot to it, features some outlandish characters, and contains many implausible moments throughout. Yet the film rises above all that and manages to capture something almost mythic about love. As with Capote’s novella, the film story depicts the life of a glamorous young lady, Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn), as seen from the exclusively focalized perspective of a young writer, Paul Varjak (George Peppard), who is Holly’s neighbor. Since much of the film is a profile of Holly Golightly, your appreciation of the tale will depend on the degree to which you find her interesting. The narrative goal takes awhile to crystallize, but it is clear from the outset that this is going to be a relationship narrative.

The question is: what will happen to the relationship between Paul and Holly? The story goes through about seven stages, the first two of which provide the viewer with background information about the life of Holly. The remaining five acts represent narrative episodes depicting Paul’s evolving relationship with Holly. 1. Paul Meets Holly The film starts with Paul moving into the apartment above Holly’s in an east side Manhattan (New York City) brownstone. They soon chat and learn about each other. Holly is a socialite, but she lives off the favors (“50 dollars for the powder room”) of men she meets at various night spots. It’s never quite clear just how promiscuous Holly is, but her incessantly flirtatious nature suggest that she is used to seducing men for money, in a high class way, of course. One evening she sneaks up the fire escape ladder and enters Paul’s apartment in order to flee one of her overly aggressive drunken conquests. Wearing only a bathrobe, she chats with Paul, and they get to know each other. Holly says that she wants to earn money to look after her older brother, Fred, who is currently in the military but is evidently mentally impaired.

She also earns money by making weekly visits to a mafia narcotics boss, Salvatore Tomato, who is a prisoner in Sing Sing penitentiary north of New York City. It later becomes evident that her visits are used to pass coded information between the mafioso and his fellow gangsters. Though Paul has published some stories, he is unemployed and financially supported by his lover, Emily Eustace Failenson (Patricia Neal), an older, married woman of considerable wealth. So both Holly and Paul are living off favors from the opposite sex – not exactly an admirable profile from either’s perspective in terms of a potential relationship between them. 2. Holly the Socialite’s Party Paul is invited the next day to party in Holly’s apartment, which turns out to be wild, almost ridiculous affair. Here is where the burlesque comedy comes in, as we meet a cast of odd New York socialites. A socialite friend of Holly introduces her to two wealthy men in her company, Rusty Trawler, whose underwhelming appearance is compensated for by his being the “ninth richest man in America under the age of fifty”, and a rich Brazilian patrician, José da Silva Pereira. Paul meets Holly’s Hollywood agent, O. J.

Berman (Martin Balsam), who tells Paul how he has taken Holly from the backwoods of Texas and groomed her to be a star. But, he tells Paul, just when he had arranged a screen test for Holly, she had tripped off to New York City. When Berman had asked her why, she responded, “when I find out what I want, I’ll let you know.” At this point in the story, forty minutes into the film, we have enough information about Holly and Paul. And we know that though Paul is relatively taciturn, he is very attracted to Holly. But Holly is a will-o-the-wisp who calls everybody “darling”, even the taxi drivers. The rest of the story concerns the progress made concerning their evolving relationship. 3. “Doc” Golightly’s Story The first hurdle is presented by the appearance of “Doc” Golightly (Buddy Epsen), a Texas veterinarian who shows up in New York City and reveals that he is Holly’s husband and wants to take her back to Texas. This is the first of the seemingly insurmountable hurdles that Paul faces in his quest for Holly.

Paul is crushed to learn that Holly, then known as Lula Mae Barnes, had married “Doc” when she was only fourteen, and he reluctantly agrees to let him take Holly away. But Holly tells Paul that her marriage had been annulled and sends “Doc” packing on a bus back to Texas. OK, one hurdle cleared. 4. The Rusty Trawler Affair Paul and Holly get drunk together at a nightclub, and then Holly reveals to Paul that she intends to marry the wealthy Rusty Trawler for his money. Again Paul is miffed. However, luck comes Paul’s way in two forms. He gets one of his stories published, and he learns that Rusty Trawler, who had run into financial straits, has gone off and married someone else for her money. Another hurdle has been cleared. 5. Paul and Holly on the Town Now Paul and Holly go out to celebrate Paul’s new publication. They visit Tiffany & Company’s famous jewelry store, where they have a wonderful interaction with a Tiffany salesman (memorably played by John McGiver), who treats their impecunious circumstances with respectful dignity.

They also visit the famous New York Public Library and finally indulge their impish urges by robbing a five-and-dime store. By the end of their day, they are in love and embrace each other in a passionate kiss. The next day Paul, now committed to Holly, breaks off his relationship with his friend Emily. 6. The José Affair Paul, now in the thralls of love, looks to find Holly, but she has gone out. When he eventually finds her in the New York Public library, she is cold and indifferent to him. She tells him that she has now decided to marry José da Silva Pereira for his money. Incredulous, Paul can’t believe that he has been dumped so abruptly. José, it turns out, is a gentleman and is sincere about wanting to marry Holly, so Paul can do nothing. At this point Holly learns that her brother, Fred, has died in an accident, and is overcome with grief. But Paul realizes that it is now up to José to comfort her. Paul’s relationship with her is over. 7. Finale Time passes. It seems that the better part of a year has gone by, and Paul has gotten a job and moved elsewhere.

He gets an invitation from Holly to visit her and say good-bye just before she is to depart on a plane to Brazil. The meeting is cordial, but Holly is totally immersed in her future plans for life with José. When after a farewell dinner out they return to Holly’s apartment, however, they are arrested by the police in connection with Holly’s relationship with mafia boss Salvatore Tomato. Her paid weekly visits to Sing Sing prison had been used by the mafia to exchange coded messages, so Holly is jailed. Paul calls O. J. Berman in Hollywood, who arranges to get Holly released on bail and tells Paul to pick up Holly and put her up at a new address. While collecting Holly’s things, including her cat, at her old apartment, Paul finds a message from José. It turns out that having learned about Holly’s arrest, José’s concern for his family’s social standing has led him to break off their engagement. When Paul picks up Holly in a taxi and the message is revealed to her, she tells him that she is going to Brazil anyway – now not to marry José, but just to explore an exciting new place and find more rich men to seduce.

She tells him that she is like her mongrel cat, a gypsy and eternally wandering free spirit. Then she pitches her cat out of the taxi and tells it go look for mice. Paul can’t believe that she could be so heartless. "I love you; you belong to me,” he implores. “People don’t belong to people,” she responds. But he tells her: “People do belong to each other. Because that’s the only chance anybody’s got for real happiness.” Then he says his final farewell and storms out of the taxi to go back and look for the cat. But for once, Holly has a change of heart. She goes to him . . . and to retrieve the cat. So what is it that makes Breakfast at Tiffany’s a great film? It is all about the depiction of Holly Golightly and her way. I have personally known a Holly Golightly, and probably you have known someone like that, too. Holly uses people by charming them. This is her habitual way of survival and is second nature to her. But she runs away from any real personal involvement.

Joni Mitchell’s song, “Cactus Tree”, comes to mind in this respect, a stanza of which reads: There's a lady in the city And she thinks she loves them all There's the one who's thinking of her There's the one who sometimes calls There's the one who writes her letters With his facts and figures scrawl She has brought them to her senses They have laughed inside her laughter Now she rallies her defenses For she fears that one will ask her For eternity And she's so busy being free Some people have asked me, why would such a person like Holly be appealing? When it comes down to it, isn’t she just an exploitative narcissist? Well, I don’t think so. The Holly Golightly here, as well as the one I knew, is completely guileless. As O. J. Berman had told Paul, Holly is a phony, but at least she’s a “real phony”. She believes in the dream world that she fabricates. Her social kisses are on the lips, not this French-inspired buss-on-the-cheek business.

She innocently shares her thoughts with everyone, and she never intends harm (although her frequent disappointments with the men she has “dated” led her to designate most of them as “rats” or “super rats”). She invited intimacy with everyone, and this part was sincere, but she was afraid to go further and hold on to something. This combination of openness and invited intimacy – carrying an assumption that everyone is inherently good, combined with an innocent vulnerability – is what makes Holly appealing. And Audrey Hepburn’s performance embodies this ideal image of vulnerable, timorous openness perfectly. Breakfast at Tiffany’s features a number of established Hollywood performers, including Patricia Neal, Martin Balsam, Mickey Rooney, Buddy Epsen, and John McGiver. But their portrayals, though emphatic and effective in their way, were rather schematic and in stark contrast to Audrey Hepburn’s genuineness. George Peppard’s restrained performance as Paul is a good complement to Hepburn’s. He effectively portrays the barely concealed anxiety of a frustrated man in love who is not supposed to reveal his feelings. In fact, though, it is Audrey Hepburn’s performance that makes the movie.

Her acting style is so natural to her visible persona that one doesn’t really think of her as a real actress. She just seems to be herself every time. But when she acts, she inserts herself so perfectly into the role, that it makes a natural fit with the interactive context. The attraction people feel is to her whole being and not just to her physical appearance. Perhaps this was why she was nominated for a best acting award for most of her film performances over her career. Audrey Hepburn even does a good job singing the evocative song, “Moon River”, which became a classic. But for some reason Truman Capote wanted Marilyn Monroe to play the lead role, and while Ms. Monroe might have given a decent performance, it would have been different and resulted in a different film. I can’t believe that she could have conveyed the essence of Holy Golightly’s personality as well as Audrey Hepburn did. In the real world, the Holly Golightlys out there invariably run away in the end, always looking for their next adventure, but never finding true happiness. But films, particularly great films, reflect our dreams more than actual reality. Rather than run away, the will-of-the-wisp Holly lingers in Breakfast in Tiffany’s, . .

. and in our own dreams, too. ★★★★ Breakfast at Tiffany's: 50 things to love about Holly Golightly - The Scotsman Breakfast at Tiffany's: 50 things to love about Holly Golightly 18:43 Wednesday 12 November 2008 08:40 Thursday 13 November 2008 IT'S 50 years since Truman Capote introduced Holly Golightly to the world in his celebrated novella, Breakfast at Tiffany's. Today Holly – played by Audrey Hepburn in the 1961 film – has become a modern icon. Alice Wyllie knows why... 1. She strikes a mean pose. The 1961 film's famous poster, on which Audrey Hepburn poses with a long cigarette holder, was named number 18 on a list of the best movie posters of all time. 2. She knows what she likes. "I'm just crazy about Tiffany's!" 3. She won't go to the bathroom for free. Holly is given $50 "for the powder room" by a male acquaintance, as payment for her companionship that evening. 4. She's got a great moniker.

In an early version of the 1958 novella Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote, the character was named Connie Gustafson. Eventually it became Holiday Golightly, then was shortened to Holly Golightly. 5. She's witty. "If I had her money, I'd be richer than she is." 6. She's unsentimental. Her pet cat is simply named "Cat". 7. But not that unsentimental. Who could fail to be moved when she desperately searches an alley in the rain for Cat whom, moments earlier, she had tossed unceremoniously out of a taxi? 8. She tells it like it is. "The mean reds are horrible. You're afraid and you sweat like hell, but you don't know what you're afraid of. Except something bad is going to happen, only you don't know what it is." 9. She's looking forward to old age. "It's tacky to wear diamonds before you're 40; and even that's risky … they only look good on the really old girls … wrinkles and bones, white hair and diamonds. I can't wait." 10. She can sing.

Moon River was written especially for Hepburn to perform in the film and won an Oscar for best original song. 11. She swings both ways. "Of course people couldn't help but think I must be a bit of a dyke myself," she says in the novella. "And of course I am. Everyone is a bit. So what? That never discouraged a man yet, in fact it seems to goad them on." 12. She makes things happen. In 1961 Tiffany & Co opened their doors on a Sunday for the first time since the 19th century, so scenes could be shot. 13. She's a heartbreaker. Though at the end of the film Holly kisses Paul in the rain, in Capote's novel she leaves for Brazil, and – except for a few postcards – he never hears from her again. 14. She has an interesting take on interior decor. Her couch is half an old-fashioned bathtub. 15. She doesn't count calories. In the first scene of the film she lingers outside Tiffany's, breakfasting on coffee and a Danish pastry – a testament to Hepburn's acting abilities, since she hated pastries. 16. She's inspiring.

In 1995, Holly Golightly inspired the song Breakfast at Tiffany's by Texas band Deep Blue Something. It went to No 1 in the UK. 17. She's sooo not a Marilyn. The role was originally written for Marilyn Monroe, (whom Truman Capote wanted for the part), but her drama coach suggested that playing a call-girl would be bad for her image and the part went to Hepburn. 18. She doesn't please everyone. "It was the most miscast film I've ever seen," said Capote. "Holly Golightly was real – a tough character, not an Audrey Hepburn type at all. The film became a mawkish valentine to New York City and Holly, and, as a result, was thin and pretty, whereas it should have been rich and ugly." 19. She's resourceful. In one film scene, she wears a bedsheet at a cocktail party. 20. She's observant. When Paul tells her about the "angry, sensitive, intensely felt and promising" book he's writing, she observes there is no ribbon in his typewriter. 21. She's stylish.

The famous black dress worn by Hepburn in the opening scenes of the film was designed by Givenchy and sold for $807,000 in 2006. 22 ...very stylish. From the enormous sunglasses to the pearls and cocktail dress, Holly's look is timeless and still copied today. 23. She knows never to stumble into bad lighting, metaphorical or otherwise. "Certain shades of limelight wreck a girl's complexion." 24. She's spontaneous. She spends a day with Paul doing things they've never done before; he has never had champagne before breakfast while she has never been for a walk in the morning. 25. She loves anything from Tiffany's, even a sterling-silver telephone dialler. 26. She's got sticky fingers. Holly and Paul decide to steal a pair of cat and dog masks simply because Paul has never shoplifted. 27. She finds attractive qualities in everyone. Even if it is usually the size of their bank balance, as in the unappealing Rusty Trawler's case: "He's the ninth-richest man under 50 in America!" 28. She'll never let anybody put her in a cage. 29.

She's outgoing. Audrey Hepburn regarded the role as one of her most challenging, being an introvert who had to play an extrovert. 30. She's philanthropic. She visits Sing Sing prison weekly, earning $100 for an hour's conversation with the incarcerated mob boss Sally Tomato. 31. She's a terrible cook. When Holly invites Paul to dinner, the results are so disastrous that the pair go out to eat. 32. She's not one for continuity. When Holly gets out of the cab into the rain at the end of the film, her hair is already soaking wet. 33. She makes smoking look cool. 34. She pays critics no heed. We think she wouldn't particularly care that, upon its publication, the New Yorker dismissed Breakfast at Tiffany's as "empty nostalgia". 35. She's popular… around 30,000 copies of the book are sold every year. 36… very popular. In the book, when the narrator examines her rubbish he finds love letters "by the bale". 37. She has an eccentric book collection.

"If a man doesn't like baseball, then he must like horses, and if he doesn't like either of them, well, I'm in trouble … he don't like girls." 38. She knows all the best eateries in New York. Unlike a certain unfortunate out-of-towner who, upon being asked which glamorous New York restaurant he would like to visit, answered, "Let's have breakfast at Tiffany's," an anecdote popular among Capote's social circle. 39. There's more than one side to her. Capote acknowledged that his heroine was a composite portrait of Manhattan socialites Gloria Vanderbilt, Carol Marcus and Oona O'Neill, as well as his mother and himself. 40. She doesn't conform to feminine ideals. In the book, Holly's hair is "boyish". 41. She's vague. On her calling card, she gives her address as "Travelling". 42. She's provocative. When she angers her landlord by ringing his doorbell to enter the building, having lost her key, she placates him by promising she'll let him take "those pictures we mentioned". 43. She's nothing like Audrey Hepburn.

"I was nothing like her, but I felt I could 'act' Holly," Hepburn said. "I always wonder if I risked enough on that one. I should have been a little more outrageous." 44. And Audrey Hepburn's nothing like her. Holly is supposed to be a blonde hillbilly in her late teens, not a well-spoken brunette of 31. 45. She likes a strong drink. Her favourite tipple is "one-half vodka, one-half gin, no vermouth". 46. She's not quite as promiscuous as she implies. In the book she confesses she's only had 11 lovers. 47. She's fabulously nave. "He's a sensitive, a religious person," she says of mob boss Sally Tomato. "A darling old man." 48. She's unsympathetic. "Timber!" she shouts when her tall friend collapses drunk at a cocktail party. 49. She's generous. She gives the narrator a $350 bird cage for Christmas. When he remarks at the price, she says it only cost her a 'few extra visits to the powder room'. 50. She's always top banana in the shock department.

Breakfast at Tiffany's (film) | Audrey Hepburn Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Breakfast at Tiffany's (film) Share Ad blocker interference detected! Wikia is a free-to-use site that makes money from advertising. We have a modified experience for viewers using ad blockers Wikia is not accessible if you’ve made further modifications. Remove the custom ad blocker rule(s) and the page will load as expected. This page uses Creative Commons Licensed content from Wikipedia ( view authors) . Breakfast at Tiffany's Gross revenue $14 million Breakfast at Tiffany's is a 1961 American film starring Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard , and featuring Patricia Neal , Buddy Ebsen , Martin Balsam , and Mickey Rooney . It was directed by Blake Edwards and released by Paramount Pictures . Audrey Hepburn's portrayal of Holly Golightly as the naive, eccentric socialite is generally considered to be the actress's most memorable and identifiable role. She herself regarded it as one of her most challenging roles to play, as she was an introvert who had to play an extrovert . Hepburn's performance of " Moon River " helped composer Henry Mancini and lyricist Johnny Mercer win an Oscar for Best Song.

The film also featured what was arguably George Peppard 's greatest acting role and the high point of his career. The film is loosely based on the novella of the same name by Truman Capote . Contents Edit Early on a fall morning, a lone taxicab deposits Holly Golightly at Tiffany's jewelry store on Fifth Avenue in New York City. Holly eats a breakfast pastry and drinks coffee while admiring the window displays, then strolls away for home. At her brownstone apartment block, Holly successfully fends off her date from the night before, who has been waiting in his car outside her residence all night and is angry that she disappeared during the course of their evening out together. Holly then meets Paul Varjak, a new tenant. After feeding her pet cat (simply named "Cat"), Holly chats with Paul as she hurriedly prepares to visit Sing Sing prison, a weekly routine from which she earns $100 for an hour's conversation with Sally Tomato, an incarcerated mob boss . Holly does not seem to realize that she is passing coded messages for Sally's drug ring. Outside the brownstone, Mrs.

Failenson (referred to as "2E" throughout the movie) arrives and is introduced as Paul's "decorator." Later that night, Holly visits Paul to escape a drunken date and sees Mrs. Failenson leave money and kiss Paul goodbye. Holly wakes up Paul and they talk. It is revealed that Paul is a writer but hasn't been published since 1956 and that Holly ran away from home at age 14 with her brother Fred, who is in the army. The next day Paul attends a party at Holly's where he is introduced to José da Silva Pereira, a handsome, rich Brazilian; and Rusty Trawler, a pudgy, rich American. Paul also meets O. J. Berman, Holly's agent. O.J. tells Paul about Holly's transformation into a classy woman, but that she is a wild spirit and difficult to pin down. Another day, Holly and Paul are visiting Sally at Sing Sing. Back home, Paul writes a story while Holly sings " Moon River " on her windowsill. Suddenly Mrs. Failenson rushes into Paul's apartment, worried about a strange man outside.

Paul is trailed by the man when he leaves the apartment, and eventually the men confront one another in Central Park. The man introduces himself as Doc Golightly. Doc and Holly were married when she was turning 14, and Holly's real name is Lula Mae Barns. Doc has come to New York to take Holly back home to Texas, where he feels she rightly belongs. But Holly later explains to Paul that the marriage was annulled . A dejected Doc returns to Texas. Holly and Paul go to a bar, and a drunken Holly explains that Fred is now her responsibility. She plans to marry Rusty for his money, but discovers the next day that Rusty has just gotten married. Holly and Paul spend the day together doing things they never did, among others going to the library and to Tiffany's where they have a ring from a box of Cracker Jack engraved. They share a kiss when they arrive home. It is implied that Holly and Paul spend the night together. The next day, Paul informs Mrs. Failenson that he no longer needs her. A confused Holly now plans to marry José, angering Paul. Another night, Holly and José return home and find a telegram informing them of Fred's death.

Holly trashes her apartment in grief. Paul tries to calm her down but her behavior concerns José. Months have passed. Paul has moved out of the brownstone but has been invited to dinner by Holly, who is leaving the next morning for Brazil. After Holly's dinner preparation goes awry, they decide to go out to dinner and, upon returning, are arrested in connection with Sally's drug ring. Holly spends the night in lock-up . The next morning, Paul is waiting with a taxicab when she is released from jail. As the cab enters the traffic, Paul reveals that he is in possession of both Cat and a letter to Holly from José, in which the rich Brazilian breaks off the relationship due to her headline-making arrest. An emotional Holly impulsively orders the driver to stop and she throws Cat out into the pouring rain from the cab. Paul leaves the cab after confronting Holly for being afraid to accept Paul's love. Holly runs after him and together they find Cat. Holly and Paul kiss. Interpretation Edit Capote's novella is more explicit when detailing both Holly and Paul's sources of income.

While the film never directly states it, it is implied that Holly is merely providing men with platonic company or, at the very most, is a courtesan . Paul's role as a kept man while a struggling writer is also never discussed in great detail, although in one scene his female companion is seen leaving money for him on his nightstand as she exits his apartment after a late-night encounter. The Hays Code of 1930 may have also played a role in the specious interpretation of their shared occupation. Cast Alan Reed as Sally Tomato The Screenplay Edit The Oscar-nominated screenplay was written by George Axelrod , loosely based on the novella by Truman Capote . Capote, who sold the film rights of his novella to Paramount Studios, wanted Marilyn Monroe to play the role of Holly Golightly in the film.

Barry Paris references a quote by Capote: "Marilyn was always my first choice to play the girl, Holly Golightly." Screenwriter Axelrod was hired to "tailor the screenplay for Monroe." When Hepburn was cast instead of Marilyn, Capote remarked: "Paramount double-crossed me in every way and cast Audrey." A number of changes were made to the storyline to adapt the story to fit the medium of cinema. Capote's novella included language that was toned down for the film. The character of 2E ( Patricia Neal ) was invented for the movie. This character, Mrs. Failenson, is called 2E because her real name is Emily Eustace. In the novella, Mag Wildwood, a model with a stuttering problem , moves into Holly's apartment after Holly falls out with the novelist upstairs. Wildwood appears briefly in the film, as a guest at the party at Holly's, with her stutter intact. The film also changed the novella's unresolved, open ending to a more conventional "Hollywood" romantic happy ending.

Production Edit Originally producers Martin Jurow and Richard Shepherd had picked John Frankenheimer as the director, but as production began they replaced him, fearing that Frankenheimer would make the film "too dark". Kim Novak was approached to play the role of Holly Golightly, but she turned it down, for fear of being typecast as a scared sex kitten. Hepburn introduced the film's signature song, "Moon River", by Henry Mancini , with lyrics by Johnny Mercer . Sung by Hepburn herself, it was written to her singing range based on the vocal solos she had performed in 1957's Funny Face . According to Mancini and Edwards, a studio executive hated the song and demanded it be cut from the film; Hepburn, who was present when this proclamation was made, responded to the suggestion by standing up and saying, "over my dead body." Filming Edit Most of the exteriors were filmed in New York City , except the fire escape scenes and the alley scene at the end in the rain where Holly puts Cat out of the cab and then Paul and Holly look for Cat. All of the interiors, except for portions of the scene inside Tiffany & Company, were filmed on the Paramount Studios lot in Hollywood.

It has been rumored that the film's on-location opening sequence, in which Holly gazes into a Tiffany's display window, was extremely difficult for director Blake Edwards to film. Although it was simple in concept, crowd control, Hepburn's dislike of pastries, and an accident that nearly resulted in the electrocution of a crew member are all said to have made capturing the scene a challenge. However, Edwards, in an interview given for the 45th anniversary DVD, said that the sequence was captured rather quickly due to the good fortune of an unexpected traffic lull despite the location in the heart of Manhattan. Influence Edit Hepburn as Holly, carrying a cigarette holder , is considered one of the iconic images of 20th century American cinema . One of three dresses designed by Givenchy for Hepburn for possible use in the movie sold at auction by Christie's on December 5, 2006 for £467,200 (~US$947,000), about seven times the reserve price.

The film rejuvenated the career of 1930s movie song-and-dance man Buddy Ebsen , who had a small but effective role in this film as Doc Golightly, Holly's ex-husband. His success here led directly to his best-known role as Jed Clampett on The Beverly Hillbillies . Criticism Edit The film has been criticized for its portrayal of the character Mr. Yunioshi, Holly's bucktoothed, stereotyped Japanese neighbor. Played by Caucasian Mickey Rooney , Rooney wore Yellowface makeup to change his features to that of a Japanese person. The issue was raised in the 1993 film Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story , when Bruce Lee and his girlfriend Linda Emery (portrayed in the film by Jason Scott Lee and Lauren Holly ) watch Breakfast at Tiffany's in the theater, but Linda suggests they leave midway through the picture after she notices that Bruce is upset at the stereotypical depiction of an Asian man portrayed by Mickey Rooney.

In the 45th anniversary edition DVD release, producer Richard Shepherd repeatedly apologizes for this, stating, "If we could just change Mickey Rooney, I'd be thrilled with the movie." Director Blake Edwards has stated in regards to Rooney's yellowface character, "Looking back, I wish I had never done it...and I would give anything to be able to recast it, but it's there, and onward and upward". In a 2008 interview about the movie, 87-year-old Rooney said he was heartbroken about the criticism and that he had never received any complaints about his portrayal of the character. A free outdoor screening in Sacramento , California, scheduled for August 23, 2008, was replaced with a screening of the animated movie Ratatouille after protests about the character Mr. Yunioshi. The protest was led by Christina Fa of the Asian American Media Watch.

In light of the protest, Sacramento vice mayor Steven Cohn stated that "the intent was never to create controversy, to make political statements or to be on the avant garde of the movie world, let alone to offend significant members of our community." Awards and Honors Edit Breakfast at Tiffany's was one of the first Hepburn films to be released to the home video market in the early 1980s, and is also widely available on DVD. On February 7, 2006, Paramount released a 45th anniversary special edition DVD set in North America with featurettes not included on the prior DVD release: Audio Commentary - with producer Richard Shepherd Breakfast at Tiffany's: The Making of a Classic - a making-of featurette with interviews by Edwards, Neal, the "laughing/crying" woman from the party, and Sean Ferrer, Hepburn's son. It's So Audrey! A Style Icon - a short tribute to Hepburn. Brilliance in a Blue Box - a brief history of Tiffany & Co. Audrey's Letter to Tiffany - an accounting of Hepburn's letter to Tiffany & Co. on the occasion of the company's 150th anniversary in 1987.

Original Theatrical Trailer Photo Gallery On January 13, 2009, a remastered Centennial Collection version of the film was released. In addition to the special features on the 45th anniversary edition, this version includes: A Golightly Gathering - Reuniting some of the past cast members from the party with interviews on their experiences filming that segment. Henry Mancini: More Than Music - A featurette about Henry Mancini, "Moon River" and interviews with Mancini's wife and children. Mr. Yunioshi: An Asian Perspective - Documentary discussing the reaction and Asian perspective of the character of Mr. Yunioshi, one of the most controversial characters in film. Behind the Gates - A tour through Paramount Studios Musical Adaptations In 1966, David Merrick produced a Broadway musical of the same name starring Mary Tyler Moore as Holly Golightly. The troubled production closed after four previews. In 2004, a new musical adaptation of the film made its world debut at The St. Louis Muny. In May 2009, actress Anna Friel confirmed that she will star in a West End adaptation of the movie.

The show is due to start in September 2009 at the Theatre Royal . Further Reading

Question: In which film does 'Holly Golightly' visit Mafia boss 'Sally Tomato' in Sing Sing Prison?
Answer: 'BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S'